We had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Stroup, and here’s what she had to say:
Q: What does “JUST THE BEGINNING” mean to you?
STROUP: “Just The Beginning” to me is about that place where literally and emotionally life feels like it has handed you an ending or an emotional rock bottom or a red light that you think won’t turn green again. In those kind of moments, when I have waited patiently, a new path – I most likely least expected – opened up something new. It’s reframing endings and seeing them as pathways forward in unexpected and sometimes better or healthier ways. Its a song to encourage other people who are at those kind of overwhelming endings and don’t know what to do – that the next right thing will be revealed in the right time.
Q: What do you like the most about your songs being featured in well-known shows like Grey’s Anatomy, The Walking Dead, The Good Doctor, and This Is Us?
STROUP: I love that they can take on new meanings for other people. I love when my songs are used to move along a bigger narrative. It’s exciting and doesn’t get old.
Q: What was the first concert you attended and how do you think it influenced your choice to become a musician?
STROUP: First big production concert was James Taylor in Dallas, Texas. It was so inspiring. I went home and learned “You Got Friend” that he sang and Carole King penned the next week. I thought it was cool he was friends with her and covered her song and gave it a whole different life.
Q: What was a typical recording session for this song like?
STROUP: For this album, I made a couple of trips to Oklahoma to Chad Copelin’s studio called Blackwatch. We tried to get all the preproduction and tone shapes down before he came into Nashville and we tracked the rest of the album at Sound Emporium with a live band. Then we went back to OK and took our time sussing through the keeper takes. It was slow and fun
Q: How long did it take you to create this song and when did you know you were ready to share it with the world?
STROUP: This one came pretty naturally. Chris Henderson who lives in Portland, Maine is a frequent collaborator with Chad and myself. One of the Oklahoma preproduction trips he sent it to us to see if we liked it. It had such a good vibe, Mary and I top lined it immediately and then we cut it in Nashville at Sound emporium. The words kind of just fell out. I had personally turned some corners from a rock bottom feeling so that was the perspective I was writing from. Finally seeing some hopeful things come to fruition in the time of the tail-end of the pandemic.
Q: What would you like your music to say?
STROUP: As a kid, I had a BB King poster in my room. It said, “Don’t just play it, feel it.” I don’t just want people to hear the lyrics but I hope they identify with the feelings it provokes and feel connection.
Interviewed by Zoey King
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